[Chester LUG] Chester Digest, Vol 345, Issue 1

Tue Apr 21 14:17:50 UTC 2015

The thing that got me worried is this book by Anthony Berglas I've been 
skimming through, 'When Computers Can Think'

http://computersthink.com/

Among other stuff he's got a bit in it about ELIZA - the emacs doctor mode?

It's a bit scary because of the view that a super-intelligent computer would 
be smart enough to manipulate us puny-humans into doing all kinds of 
counter-productive things, by feeding us 'designer' info, personalising our 
search results, getting us hooked on cute pictures of kittens - or worse! It 
would manipulate our knowledge and beliefs, shaping our world views and 
identities, and end up getting us hooked. Turning off a super-intelligent 
computer would be like asking a drug dealer to stop selling you drugs.

All a bit far fetched I thought, and then I came across the thing about 
facebook... hmmm...

Robin

On Tuesday 21 April 2015 13:56:45 Les Pritchard wrote:
> That's a really good point! Maybe they could offer a feed that only shows
> their 'friends' looking rough instead of the highly posed selfies!
> 
> On 21 April 2015 at 13:12, animation animation <animation1138 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > I have seen an article online linking heavy Facebook use to depression.
> > Facebook envy. People exaggerating how good their lives our makes 
onlookers
> > depressed about their own life.
> > Perhaps mildly bad news on fb will cheer people up.
> >  On 21 Apr 2015 13:00, <chester-request at mailman.lug.org.uk> wrote:
> >
> >> Send Chester mailing list submissions to
> >>         chester at mailman.lug.org.uk
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> >> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> >> than "Re: Contents of Chester digest..."
> >>
> >>
> >> Today's Topics:
> >>
> >>    1. facebook (Robin Hemuss)
> >>    2. Re: facebook (Les Pritchard)
> >>    3. Re: facebook (David Holden)
> >>
> >>
> >> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> Message: 1
> >> Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2015 15:48:58 +0100
> >> From: Robin Hemuss <robin592 at yahoo.co.uk>
> >> To: chester at mailman.lug.org.uk
> >> Subject: [Chester LUG] facebook
> >> Message-ID: <201504201548.58707.robin592 at yahoo.co.uk>
> >> Content-Type: text/plain;  charset="us-ascii"
> >>
> >> Hello people,
> >>
> >> I don't know if this is old news for everyone else. The article's a few
> >> months
> >> old, but still interesting I think.
> >>
> >>
> >> 
http://www.nature.com/news/misjudgements-will-drive-social-trials-underground-1.15553?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews
> >>
> >> It seems that facebook spent some time feeding people disproportionately
> >> good/bad news in their updates, and monitored if they behaved happy/sad
> >> as a
> >> result. Apparently this is ethical because it's pretty much what they
> >> normally do anyway, and also it's not that much different from regular
> >> advertising. Sounds a bit iffy to me though.
> >>
> >> I just wondered what the general opinion over this kind of stuff is. How
> >> can
> >> you keep your facebook activity secret from facebook?
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Robin
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ------------------------------
> >>
> >> Message: 2
> >> Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2015 20:53:06 +0100
> >> From: Les Pritchard <les.pritchard at gmail.com>
> >> To: chester <chester at mailman.lug.org.uk>
> >> Subject: Re: [Chester LUG] facebook
> >> Message-ID:
> >>         <CAC_G_sDZ5-kLh=
> >> BpF_1js_3VUr5pZUXsFfa9rrA2MCV2xXVGQg at mail.gmail.com>
> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> >>
> >> Yes, it was an interesting 'experiment' but the ethical side is really
> >> questionable. I'm sure their view is that it is their network and you
> >> agree
> >> to this stuff in the T & C. Facebook certainly does decide what you see,
> >> but you are able to change that if you 'train' your account. In terms of
> >> stopping Facebook from watching you, well on Facebook you're obviously
> >> screwed! To avoid tracking on other sites you'd need to remove all the
> >> cookies so the like buttons couldn't track your visits. You could run you
> >> browser in the private mode and restart it after using Facebook, which
> >> would reduce the tracking ability. Alternatively, use one browser to
> >> access
> >> Facebook and then another for every other site. This would mean Facebook
> >> could only see what they already know.
> >>
> >> There are plenty of other steps you can take, but those are the simple
> >> ones
> >> that spring to mind.
> >>
> >> On 20 April 2015 at 15:48, Robin Hemuss <robin592 at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> >>
> >> > Hello people,
> >> >
> >> > I don't know if this is old news for everyone else. The article's a few
> >> > months
> >> > old, but still interesting I think.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> 
http://www.nature.com/news/misjudgements-will-drive-social-trials-underground-1.15553?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews
> >> >
> >> > It seems that facebook spent some time feeding people 
disproportionately
> >> > good/bad news in their updates, and monitored if they behaved happy/sad
> >> as
> >> > a
> >> > result. Apparently this is ethical because it's pretty much what they
> >> > normally do anyway, and also it's not that much different from regular
> >> > advertising. Sounds a bit iffy to me though.
> >> >
> >> > I just wondered what the general opinion over this kind of stuff is. 
How
> >> > can
> >> > you keep your facebook activity secret from facebook?
> >> >
> >> > Cheers,
> >> > Robin
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > _______________________________________________
> >> > Chester mailing list
> >> > Chester at mailman.lug.org.uk
> >> > https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/chester
> >> >
> >> -------------- next part --------------
> >> An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
> >> URL: <
> >> 
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> >> >
> >>
> >> ------------------------------
> >>
> >> Message: 3
> >> Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2015 11:25:35 +0100
> >> From: David Holden <dh at iucr.org>
> >> To: chester at mailman.lug.org.uk
> >> Subject: Re: [Chester LUG] facebook
> >> Message-ID: <5536259F.10403 at iucr.org>
> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
> >>
> >> It's a disgraceful exercise IMO. I wonder how many of those experimented
> >> on were suffering from depression? A "tap tap tap" in the wrong
> >> direction could lead to devastating consequences if so.
> >>
> >> But then it's par for the course with unthinking globocorps like
> >> FaceBook and Google.
> >>
> >> I'm pretty sure I read that Google's identity "merging" around Google+
> >> lead to people being outed when they were not ready or wanting to be.
> >>
> >> We're witnessing a step change reduction in privacy made all the more
> >> troubling by the internet's pretty permanent memory and governments need
> >> to surveil.
> >>
> >> Ultimately I suspect we're all going to have to become both a lot more
> >> forgiving of other peoples private peccadilloes or a lot more shameless
> >> ourselves.
> >>
> >>    Dave.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On 20/04/15 15:48, Robin Hemuss wrote:
> >> > Hello people,
> >> >
> >> > I don't know if this is old news for everyone else. The article's a few
> >> months
> >> > old, but still interesting I think.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> 
http://www.nature.com/news/misjudgements-will-drive-social-trials-underground-1.15553?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews
> >> >
> >> > It seems that facebook spent some time feeding people 
disproportionately
> >> > good/bad news in their updates, and monitored if they behaved happy/sad
> >> as a
> >> > result. Apparently this is ethical because it's pretty much what they
> >> > normally do anyway, and also it's not that much different from regular
> >> > advertising. Sounds a bit iffy to me though.
> >> >
> >> > I just wondered what the general opinion over this kind of stuff is.
> >> How can
> >> > you keep your facebook activity secret from facebook?
> >> >
> >> > Cheers,
> >> > Robin
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > _______________________________________________
> >> > Chester mailing list
> >> > Chester at mailman.lug.org.uk
> >> > https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/chester
> >> >
> >>
> >> --
> >> Dr David Holden. (dh at iucr.org)
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> ------------------------------
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Chester mailing list
> >> Chester at mailman.lug.org.uk
> >> https://mailman.lug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/chester
> >>
> >>
> >> End of Chester Digest, Vol 345, Issue 1
> >> ***************************************
> >>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Chester mailing list
> > Chester at mailman.lug.org.uk
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> >
> >
> 